SLPAD the small rain slightly OT poetic coda

[Michael Bailey]

https://interestingliterature.com/2016/02/10-classic-poems-about-rain-everyone-should-read/

Westron wynde, when wyll thow blow
The smalle rayne downe can rayne?
Cryst yf my love were in my armys,
And I yn my bed agayne!


The precise meaning of the first two lines (especially ‘the small rain down
can rain’) remains something of a mystery, but most scholars appear to
favour the following meaning: western wind, when will you blow so that the
small rain can rain down? Interpreted this way, the poem is about *longing *for
rain, rather than escaping it


- not completely topical, then, but it’s already lodged itself in the same
arrondissement as “where are the snows of yesteryear?” & “Ich am of
Irlaunde” - & no doubt will pop up again:

Cryst yf my love were in my armys
And I yn my bed agayne!